The importance of reading to infants and toddlers

Reading to a baby should begin around three months of age; the American Academy of Pediatrics advises starting in infancy. The evidence is striking: in a Rhode Island Hospital study, eight-month-olds who were read to often grew their receptive vocabularies by 40 percent as they grew up, against 16 percent for babies who were not.

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents,” goes the saying, and reading to your child is one of the first ways to build a connection with them. But many parents wonder how to read to an infant who seemingly understands nothing yet. The why, what, how, where and when are all worth spelling out.

Why read to a baby?

1. Bonding. Quality time on a lap makes infants and toddlers feel connected and, in turn, more interactive, and it builds a positive attitude toward books that lasts.
2. Listening and imagination. Being read to stretches attention span and concentration, and feeds creativity.
3. Thinking skills. Early reading exposure builds analytical ability and grasping power ahead of preschool, with vocabulary growth as the running bonus.
4. Communication. Reading is communication with your child, and good readers grow into effective communicators, in speech and in writing.
5. Experience of the world. Stories let children rehearse situations and emotions safely, easing anxiety and seeding the interpersonal skills that come later.

There is brain imaging behind all this: a 2019 study found that replacing screens with reading in children under five boosts brain development, with measurable increases in the organised white matter that underpins language and learning.

A baby who understands nothing of the story is still learning everything about language: its sounds, its rhythms, and the fact that it comes wrapped in a parent’s full attention.

What should you read?

For infants: books with high-contrast, visually appealing images. Board books and cloth books with touch-and-feel textures let the baby connect with the book physically while you read; interactive books with simple light and sound effects, and lift-the-flap peekaboo books, are excellent.

For toddlers: big, bold letters with simple text and illustrations, because the goal is quietly shifting from reading to them toward them reading along. Start with familiar content: shapes, colours, animals and their sounds, letters, the things they see around them. Rhyming books earn their keep twice over, being both more fun and easier to interpret; they are also your child’s first phonological awareness training.

How do you read to someone this small?

For infants: sing, read, repeat. Snuggle them on your lap or beside them on the bed. Be expressive, keep frequent eye contact, show the pictures, let them touch and hold the book, and try a little voice modulation.

For toddlers: do not expect them to sit still; they move, and that is fine. Pull them in with finger or hand puppets, and give the characters voices: Goldilocks and the three bears, each bear its own growl. (The full toolkit is in how to make a read-aloud interesting.)

Where and when?

Reading to children does not wait for school; it starts now. For infants, bedtime works, and so do their alert, active stretches during the day. For toddlers, bedtime reading should already be a habit, plus pockets of the day, and gradually encourage them to read small sentences themselves.

Keep the books where the child can reach them: touch-and-feel and pop-up books mixed in with the toys for babies, well-illustrated short storybooks as part of playtime for toddlers. A little homemade baby library, at floor level, is a genuinely good idea.

Favourite books to start with

1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and anything by Eric Carle
2. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
3. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.
4. The Llama Llama Red Pajama books

Do not wait to start; the earliest months are when the returns compound fastest. And if you have not started yet, tonight is soon enough. Make reading fun for both of you, and the rest follows: reading to preschoolers is the next chapter of this same habit.

Dr. V.S. Gayathri is a Certified Dyslexia Therapist, an Orton-Gillingham trained literacy specialist, and the founder of Flourishing Kids. She has delivered over 4,000 hours of one-to-one reading and spelling intervention, helping children across multiple countries build stronger literacy skills. For guidance on your little one’s earliest reading steps, get in touch for a free 15-minute conversation.